A forum dedicated to the expansion in neuropathology knowledge for students and practitioners alike.
The massive intraparenchymal hemorrhage depicted in the autopsy specimen of a 60-year-old male patient is the result of hypertensive vasculopathy. Bleeding originated in penetrating vessels of the basal ganglia and extended into adjacent cerebral structures. The blood acts as a space-occupying lesion, resulting in uncal and subfalcine herniation with associated tissue destruction.
This middle aged patient had a heterogeneous lesion with multiple irregular rings of enhancement following contrast administration. Biopsy revealed glioblastoma with microvascular proliferation and necrosis, both of which contain leaky blood vessels that contribute to contrast enhancement on imaging.
This elderly patient complaining of headache was diagnosed with glioblastoma following biopsy of the heterogeneous, ring-enhancing lesion in the right temporal lobe. Mass effect caused by the space-occupying tumor has pushed the ipsilateral cingulate gyrus under the falx cerebri, resulting in a subfalcine herniation.
The World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the CNS officially recognizes 13 different variants of meningioma, most of which are Grade 1 tumors that are potentially curable with complete resection. Chordoid meningioma is a rare subtype that accounts for less than 1% of all intracranial meningiomas. They are commonly composed of epithelioid tumor cells,... Continue Reading →
Glioblastomas are malignant astrocytomas that often show pseudopalisading necrosis, characterized by palisading of neoplastic cells along the edges of tumor necrosis. Gioblastomas are the most common malignant primary brain tumor.
Learn about basic histopathologic diagnosis of diffuse astrocytomas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm764936sIg&feature=share
Short segment on recognizing vascular proliferation in Glioblastomas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UefxKiHxwzo
This image of a nerve root shows axons myelinated by oligodendroglial cells of the central nervous system (top of image) and Schwann cells of the peripheral nervous system (bottom of image) at a point of transition called the Obersteiner-Redlich zone.
A common histologic finding in ependymomas (shown here) are perivascular pseudo-rosettes characterized by neoplastic ependymal cell nuclei radiating outward from a blood vessel, which creates a pink zone of glial processes immediately surrounding the blood vessels.Â
Stemming from the Latin word "Pilos", meaning "resembling or composed of hair", pilocytic astrocytomas are named as such because of their long hair-like gliofibrillary processes (clear arrows) that stem off of slender bipolar nuclei (black arrows), which are best seen on smear preparation of fresh tissue (depicted here).
Adventures in Neuropathology 